Flowing movement of the Nimrod Glacier

The glacier is 135 kilometres long (82.5°S, 160°E), working its way from the polar plateau through the Transantarctic Mountains, a range of mountains that runs across the entire continent of Antarctica at heights of up to 4500 metres. As it moves, it transports ice from eastern Antarctica to the Ross Ice Shelf. The glacier can move up to two metres per day. "The flow speed is an important indicator in understanding the dynamics of the polar ice sheets," says Dana Floricioiu from the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute. "The polar regions play an important role in the Earth system – changes influence climate models with a local impact on the properties of the polar oceans as well as a global impact on rising sea levels."